NASA Will Use Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo to Experiment in the Stars

NASA's space shuttle program may be kaput, but that doesn't mean they've given up their space adventuring entirely: in the future, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo will house research missions for the government organization.

According to Gizmag, NASA will pay as much as £2.9 million to have 590kg of research equipment housed abord the suborbital craft, and would allow NASA to run 600 experiments per flight. When this partnership will begin exactly is unknown. But it will be the first partnership of the NASA's Flight Opportunity program, which is built around using private aerospace firms to help conduct research. [Gizmag]